Summer Rain Revisited, Beaver Brook Park, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

Here's another version of this morning's post - this one in black and white - I think I like this one even better.

If I could have just gotten the dog to look straight ahead...........oh well.  (Note: for you inquiring  photographers out there, it was shot at 1/60 second).

Summer Rain, Beaver Brook Park, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

There is nothing quite like a brief, intense summer rain shower - the steadily falling, soaking rain that drops the temperature 10 degrees in just minutes. As a kid,  I remember my brother and I making popsicle stick boats and floating them in the instant rivers that formed in the roadside gutters near our home - I don't see kids doing that these days, they're probably inside a house using some electronic device. At least the white dog seemed to enjoy it.......



Manomet, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

From Manomet Point looking northeast into Cape Cod Bay.

South of Stage Point from the beach below Manomet Bluffs.

Stage Point in the distance as viewed from below Manomet Bluffs.



Progress in Manomet, Manomet, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

The Simes House was built in about 1863 and stands today in need of tender loving care and repair and restoration. The Simes House Foundation was created to restore and maintain the Simes House and Manomet Commons as self-sustaining historical landmarks in the Village of Manomet. For the public benefit, the Foundation will enhance cultural focus and identity, provide education and encourage community service.

Manomet is one of the villages of Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is a seaside village south of downtown Plymouth and adjacent to White Horse Beach and Priscilla Beach. Plymouth itself is the largest municipality by area in the state and boasts at least 365 lakes and ponds within its borders - one for every day of the year. 

A project to improve the intersection of Manomet Point Road and State Road, a long time in the making, has been underway for many weeks.  This area is the main commercial center of the village with shops, restaurants, services, groceries, post office, and banks.

I never thought much about the difficulty in building this road/curb/signal/sidewalk/infrastructure project until watching it unfold week after week.  The roads had to remain passable or with reasonable detours, two or three policemen were on duty each and every day directing traffic and supporting the needs of drivers and workers. Surveying, grading, digging, removing, replacing, wires, poles, concrete, asphalt, granite curbs..... the list goes on. We sure have a complicated world compared to the horse and buggy days of yesteryear. When completed, this project will provide the only traffic light in the main commercial area of the village of Manomet and only the second one in the village.  The first traffic signal in Manomet is a few miles north at the intersection of White Horse Beach and State Roads also known informally as Gellar's corner.

Soon this will be a new sidewalk.

The library even gets new granite curbstones and asphalt driveway entrances.

Curved granite - chiseled/shaped to last - granite curbstones are very common in New England.

The former Roger's Market and current Luke's Liquors gets a facelift at the same time the road project is ongoing.

Out to Sea, White Horse Beach, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

This activity is not exactly what I'd do on a cool, rainy, windy, cloudy day but these hearty New Englanders were undaunted. Looks like they are preparing for the olympics in the synchronized kayak paddling event.



Don't Miss Your Life

 

I recently heard a song playing on the radio called "Don't Miss Your Life," by Phil Vassar, that laments his absence from many important events in his children's lives.  As I unpacked moving boxes recently, I stumbled upon some 20-year-old videos of my own son's early years - first solid food, first steps, first words, first birthday, first whatever...... Sometimes I missed it, sometimes I was present for that special moment of learning and knowing - to see the sense of accomplishment - to watch a young life focus and independently plan and execute an action that was beyond reach even the day before.  As I reflect back, I think that overall, I was lucky to have been present more often than not. It just seems like it was all over so fast.......where has the time gone?

Beach Path, White Horse Beach, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

Another one of the routes to the beach.

Why does the ocean and beach so draw me in? I'm not a strong swimmer, I don't enjoy water sports, I must always wear eyeglasses to see well, and I have pasty white caucasian skin that sunburns easily. But I choose to return, again and again, to beaches the world over, to feel their sand beneath my feet. I sometimes plan my day around low tide just so I can walk at the beach. Is it the mystery of sea life, the excitement of sea voyages, the foreign lands at distant shores, the promise of unknown cultures, foods, and lives, or the big, blue, visually beautiful expanse that stretches into the distance and joins the sky at the horizon?  Perhaps it's all of those things.

Summer Evening, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

Brewster Park is immediately adjacent to Pilgrim Park in downtown Plymouth and offers a nice strolling path along a babbling brook.

Pilgrim Park is the famous site of  Plymouth Rock where the pilgrims landed in 1620. In summer the park serves as a venue for outdoor weekly free concerts (See this blog or this blog for earlier posts).

This week's opening act was Sarah Blacker......

....and her percussionist Shaysh.

Immediately in front of the stage, two little boys played in the dirt........

.......and a little girl danced as if no one was watching.

Sometimes they all played together.

And as the daylight faded, another perfect summer evening in "America's Hometown" was capped off with a beautiful technicolor sunset along the waterfront, the third day in a row of spectacular sunsets.  (See Amy's blog here for last night's sunset).

GIF

In a few of my blog posts some months ago, I experimented with GIF files to show motion. The GIF, by it's full name, "Graphics Interchange Format, is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the web due to its wide support and portability" (source: Wikipedia). Anybody else remember CompuServe?

The following GIF was sent to me. I did not take these photographs nor did I perform the action shown but - I have always liked both fire and tennis......I just never thought to put them together.

This is what happens if you soak a tennis ball in a particular flammable liquid, light it on fire, then drop it and hit it. Do not  try this at home - but I speculate that at least one of you might.



Country Roads, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

I find small rural lanes and roads to be restful on the eye and mind. This is one of my favorite unpaved country roads in southeast Massachusetts.

And this is one of my favorite paved country roads in southeast Massachusetts. It is unfortunate that the highway folks felt a need to paint a divider line on this one.  I could photoshop it out?

There - I feel better. If reality doesn't suit me I can sometimes alter it - I also straightened the left vertical edge of the barn - ah, the magic of post-processing.